Hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), this year’s event is held under the theme of “Ecosystem connect,” gathering over 4,000 people with more than 400 investors, startups and big corporations.

Speaking at the opening, MOST Minister, Chu Ngoc Anh, emphasised that from the torches lit up at Techfest 2016, the flames of creativity and the startup spirit have flared and spread throughout the country, connecting more and more deeply with the international startup community.

Startup and innovation has taken a new step with active activities and strong spreading of entrepreneurial spirit and startup support. Notably, there are five successful projects in calling for investment in the past year with a total value of over US$50 million, including Momo US$28 million, F88 US$10 million, Got It! more than US$9 million and Vntrip.vn US$3 million.

Currently, Vietnam has about 3,000 startups, of which 900 have been started up in the last two years with 300 products linked to investment funds and applied to life. More than 40 venture capital funds have been operating in Vietnam, along with 24 business incubators, ten business promotion organisations and many startup support networks have been formed. These impressive figures have confirmed the strong development of the national economy.

Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam visits a booth at Techfest 2017. (Credit: VGP)

Praising the initial results of domestic startup community, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam affirmed that Vietnam must innovate in creative ways, in which connectivity is important due to the fact that today's world is flat and open connections are "blinding" out of space. Vietnam welcomes all investors to jointly promote domestic startup activities in a stronger and sustainable manner to achieve the set goals, making startup not just a movement, but must move into permanence, Dam stated.

The government senior official also stressed that all people need to take responsibility for the country and do startup with bravery, creativeness and confidence, do not dare to fail because “doing nothing does not help bring about success and no one succeeds without failure.”

The deputy PM also said that the support from the Government, the community and successful startups would help minimise failure, so the legal corridor and support is very important to startups.

The two day festival sees participation of various organisations supporting innovative startups in six potential areas, including startup support organisations’ community; agriculture; education; travel and food service; medical and new technologies. These are the areas where there are many potential startups, which are of interest to investors and also receive the Government’s prioritises in line with the developmental trend of the fourth Industrial Revolution.

Within the framework of the opening ceremony, the MOST launched its National Startup Portal at www.startup.gov.vn, providing fully, accurate and timely information on startup activities. At the same time, it is also a useful bridge for young people to seek opportunities to participate in startup activities and share stories concerning successful startups across the country.